Nadsat Language

[SG]

A few years back, I published an article in an indie film mag called Paracinema (http://www.paracinema.net) digging into the unique language in the film version and expanding on its roots in the book.

Is a nadsat dictionary necessary to really appreciate this book or are the context clues enough?

Here's the article, if anyone's interested: http://s3.amazonaws.com/external_clip...

-SPG

[Walter]

Great article. I believe the initial inaccessibility of the language is one of the keys to the Clockwork Orange experience, one that would be effectively destroyed by a dictionary/glossary.

You see, in the first chapters Nadsat creates a void between the characters and the reader, a sense of otherness that insulates against much of the brutality that soon ensues. Alex and the rest are this sort of tribe, with a different language almost, their own uniforms, and their own rules.

As the story progresses and you pick up context clues, you start owning the language, and a sort of initiation begins taking place. In this there is much similarity with the military.

[Benjamin Reed]

Couldn't agree more with Argento. When I first read the book, I would consistently refer to the glossary in the back to try and interpret what was actually being described by the characters. Ultimately, you start to recognize and understand the Nadsat slang automatically. It's interesting, but I don't think the book would've been as gruesome or provocative if Burgess had the characters speaking colloquially.

[SG]

Argenton and Benjamin, I agree with you both. What I've always been most impressed with is that Burgess was able to take an entirely foreign dialect and make the vast majority of it understandable without a formal dictionary. The book doesn't introduce a new language entirely, like something from Lord of the Rings or Star Trek, but the nadsat words themselves somehow manage to "make sense" in the context. Really brilliant writing.

-SPG

[Rebecca]

I was able to guess the meaning of all the words from the context as far as I remember, but for example, you might think from their description that moloko is probably milk but you wonder if it's not something else.

I also found years later when I went to learn Russian that I knew some of the basic vocabulary already :D

[Nik]

It's been a long while since I read it and I can't believe that I didn't turn to the glossary at some point or another but at the same time I'm fairly sure that, like Rebecca, I mostly understood the slang used without it being too much of a chore ... I also found it very handy when I came to study Russian too!

Just one thing that struck me, and it's a wild supposition but what the hell, is I wonder whether his Malayasian experiences actually had a bearing on a world in which people speak a whole spectrum of languages all (apparently) mixed in together?

I think the Malaya trilogy was Burgess's first work to be published while he was working as a high school teacher out there during the Malaya emergency (so there would have been quite significant acts of real violence, shoot outs and so on, as much from the British soldiers as from Chen Peng's Malaysian Communist insurgents).

Well anyway, Burgess worked in a school and I've just seen that a lot of the English loan words in Malayalam seem, for some reason, to relate to school: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loan_wor...

Anyhow, I read your article (Sean) and liked it.

[SG]

Nik wrote: "It's been a long while since I read it and I can't believe that I didn't turn to the glossary at some point or another but at the same time I'm fairly sure that, like Rebecca, I mostly understood t..."

Thanks for taking the time to read my article, Nik! Very interesting thoughts you add here.

-SPG

[HK]

Knowing Russian better than English (it's sort of my second mother tongue) I first read this book in Russian translation. The translator decided to leave Nadsat words as is, or maybe slightly changed, without even transliterating to Cyrillic alphabet. Because that would mean that all text would be nearly plain Russian. But that didn't help him to achieve the unreadability achieved by Burgess in original text (assuming that readers do not understand Russian).

Then I read it in English, but of course almost all nadsat words was clear to me. One way or another, the Russian-speaking readers cannot enjoy the game of guessing in full, as proposed by the author.

I thought that if I would translate it to Russian, I'd try to derive slang words from English or better from German (because English words have already came into Russian youth's slang, so it would not look like something new), in a manner:
gulliver - копф (from Kopf)
bolnoy - кранкий (from kranf oops, krank)
creech - шраить (from schreien)

and so on

[SG]

Not being a Russian speaker myself and having written my article without consulting any Russian speakers, many of your comments here are adding an intriguing element to my initial thoughts on the book. Thanks for chiming in.

-SPG

[Fatin]

I tried to enjoy the book, but honestly the Nadsat language prevented me from doing so. I ended up not reading the book.

[Manav]

Fatin wrote: "I tried to enjoy the book, but honestly the Nadsat language prevented me from doing so. I ended up not reading the book."

Give it another shot. People here are not wrong when they say that the weird words that he uses are not just words that are weird for the sake of being weird words.

[Fatin]

Manav wrote: "Give it another shot. People here are not wrong when they say that the weird words that he uses are not just words that are weird for the sake of being weird words."

I think I will. I usually like books that read in a flow, or at most, there are only a few chapters/passages that I have to read twice over to understand properly, so A Clockwork Orange was real difficult for me. But I will give it another shot because the movie is there in my top 3, best ever movies.

[Linda]

Clockwork Orange is available as an audiobook on audible.com. When I heard the words spoken in context I had very little difficulty understanding what they meant. I think that the movie worked well in part because the words were spoken.

The recording is by copyright 2007 by Harper Audio. The excellent narration is by Tom Hollander.

[Eric]

I just finished it a couple of days ago. At first the Nadsat really annoyed me and I almost quit. This was not because I found it hard to understand, but because it felt forced and I felt it stunted the prose. I think that for the most-part Burgess made the meanings very clear from the context but it was such a conscious effort that the style seemed off and some descriptions were almost inane as words were repeated just to make sure we got them. I think if you translated it into ordinary English it would sound quite retarded in parts as the very fact that we are being presented with a new language limits the vocabulary that can be used. The words 'voice', 'hand', 'hear' etc. were repeated over and over again just to make sure we understand.
All that said, I just waited till I was in the mood and I did enjoy the book, it just took a while for me enjoy it

[Matthew]

Sean wrote: "A few years back, I published an article in an indie film mag called Paracinema (http://www.paracinema.net) digging into the unique language in the film version and expanding on its roots in the bo..."

That was a very good read! I'm actually tempted to take on the original novel. I opted out of reading it since it seemed that his insistence to include a final chapter detailing Alex's redemption seemed a bit unnecessary. And dangit if the movie wasn't just so cool! I even caught the stage play at my university, and somehow, between all of that, I felt that I had already seen what I needed to. Foolish, I know!

[SG]

Matthew wrote: "Sean wrote: "A few years back, I published an article in an indie film mag called Paracinema (http://www.paracinema.net) digging into the unique language in the film version and expanding on its ro..."

Glad you enjoyed, Matthew! The book is definitely work investing some time.

-SPG

[Ross]

I read this book without the Nadsat dictionary and, though it took longer to get through, made the experience much more involved and, therefore, left a lasting impression.

[mkfs]

Nadsat is proving almost prescient. The slang used in the (cyber) criminal underground is based on Russian wordplay.

Take the term “credit card,” for example.
In Russian, this is “крeдитная карта.” But cybercriminals use the term “картон” instead, which in English
means “carton.” The same issue applies to other terms like “Paypal,” which translates to “palka” (палка) in
slang, meaning “stick,” and “bulletproof server” or “abuse free” (арбуз) in slang, meaning “watermelon.”

From Trend Micro: Russian Underground 2.0.

[Bookerkc]

I just finished this book. I noticed Burgess used the same words too frequently. Malenky for example is used so often. I doubt an author writing in just one language could get away with repeating the same words. However, I found it almost eerie how Alex used "like" the same way teens use it today. Also, the word "chai" for tea is also used today.

[Greg]

I read a version with a dictionary at the end. But I didn't know the dictionary was there. I found that most of the terms/words made sense within context, but there were a few that I didn't get. So, to anyone getting ready to read it, you might want to check for a dictionary at the end of the book first.

[mkfs]

Greg wrote: "I read a version with a dictionary at the end. But I didn't know the dictionary was there. I found that most of the terms/words made sense within context, but there were a few that I didn't get. "

I had the same experience. It hadn't occurred to me there would be a glossary at the end of a novel, so I was surprised and a little annoyed when I found it after finishing. Would have made reading much easier if I had known it was there.
I tend to use the glossary now when I re-read Clockwork Orange.

[Greg]

Mkfs wrote: "Greg wrote: "I read a version with a dictionary at the end. But I didn't know the dictionary was there. I found that most of the terms/words made sense within context, but there were a few that I d..."
Mkfs, definitely a great book and definitely worth reading again, but many editions don't have a glossary.

[Mehmet]

Neither English nor Russian was my main language when I read this book, and even though I struggled in the beginning and found myself an online dictionary (which I read only once, without following it simultaneously as I read the book) I think 95% of the words make themselves clear enough after a while, and you don't even think about them.

However there were few words that I never understood and didn't feel like looking them up either, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying the book.

[Edwin]

Nadsat is bullshit. I come from the kind of underclass Alex and his droogs inhabit. When I read Clockwork Orange, Nadsat seemed exactly like what a colonial white guy would imagine gutter level slang might be like if the Russkies invaded. As a gutter-level scumbag myself, growing up in post-punk Thatcherism, Burgess's fake linguistic overconfidence irritated me. "Lomticks" of toast, indeed. Embarrassingly bad pseudo-language from an over-privileged posho.

Write what you know.

A real insight into how totalitarianism filters into language, and how politics filters into slang, instead of Burgess's hack attempt at inventing a new slang, can be found in Orwell's "Politics and the English Language."